Tennessee Posts

I’ve been reading the book that everyone was talking about six months ago – Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance. It has been touted as an insightful book about Appalachia and more specifically about the people who voted Donald Trump into office.

It’s not really either of those things. When Vance says he’s from Appalachia what he means is that his people are from Kentucky, which is unquestionably Appalachia. But he grew up in Ohio, which to people who are Appalachian, not Appalachia.read more

It’s the time now when I have finished one book and about to get started on another. It’s time for resetting. A time where I prepare for book tour. This last book in the Appalachian series will include a talk/presentation for ancestry buffs, so I’m working on that.

But it also the time I set aside for reading, replenishing, thinking, filling myself up.

I get out of the house more. I’ll be meeting with Sarah TheBarge in Portland next week for a girlfriend get-together. I am very excited about her upcoming book WELL, about her work in Togo. I’ll let you know when it’s out.read more

Her bible is sitting on my desk. One of many my mother studied. There’s a pair of black-handled scissors laying across it, and a postcard for one of my books. The one book I’ve written that Mama never read. She died before I wrote a single word of it.

One of my kin told me recently that she didn’t like the way we buried Mama. Said it bothered her that I had just poured Mama’s ashes into the hole instead of putting them into an urn and placing that in the ground.

I called Sister Tater and asked her if it had bothered her, the way we’d done it. She said she hadn’t really thought about it. I guess I hadn’t either. It’s not like I knew the protocol for burying a mother, given I’d never done it before.read more

During a recent visit to my grandson’s home, Pistol Pete invited us upstairs to his bedroom. He refused to take one step until we were all lined up and following him – Pa, me and his momma.

It wasn’t his toys that Pistol Pete was eager to show us; it was his books. Everyone in the family started buying books for him as soon as we knew his momma was pregnant. Whenever I travel, I pick up books for my grandson (and my grandchildren yet to come). He has an anniversary copy of Walter the Farting Dog that I bought at Reed’s Gumtree Bookstore in Tupelo, Mississippi, and his most recent acquisition was a book about Salamanders in the Great Smoky Mountains.read more

Karen Spears Zacharias

Karen Spears Zacharias grew up in a military family. Her father was killed in action in 1966. That early experience led Karen into a career as a journalist. She studied at Berry College, Oregon State University and Eastern Oregon University.
Karen has worked at newspapers around the country. Her commentary has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, Newsweek, CNN, National Public Radio and The Huffington Post.
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Karly Sheehan: True Crime Story Behind Karly’s Law

(Redbird Publishing)

“Beautifully written by a very talented investigative journalist. Karen has given us Karly’s legacy, that of a small, bright spirit who loved and was loved. And yet destroyed by heedless caretakers. A must read. Compelling and heartbreaking.”

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Journal of San Francisco Police Officers Association

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Mother of Rain: A Novel

(Mercer University Press)

“Beautifully drawn Appalachian characters, a strong sense of time and place, and a deeply important and universal theme: the interconnection of our actions and guilt (the patchwork quilt image). Like Blake, Zacharias deals with the complexity of the “fearful symmetry”, adding a profundity to her tale that gives it a superb richness.”

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Will Jesus Buy Me a Doublwide? ‘Cause I need more room for my plasma TV

(Zondervan)

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Where’s Your Jesus Now?

(Zondervan)

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After the Flag has been Folded

(William Morrow)

“A relentless narrative, brilliantly written and paced, told by a daughter whose father was killed in action in Vietnam and the devastating effect it had on the author and her family. I am giving this book to my daughters.” Pat Conroy

“A dead-honest, raw-edged memoir on how the death of her father in Vietnam changed her life and the lives of everyone around her. Wonderfully told.”

Joseph Galloway

“A beautiful and important book. It thrums with real life and the beating heart of not only her own family’s history, but everyone’s history. This book will stay with me always.”read more